AN EX-footballer has been unmasked as a drug kingpin after using his team’s name as an EncroChat password.
Francis, also known as Franny, Ventre was once known for his performances as a defender on the pitch.
The 62-year-old eventually landed management roles within his club, Barrow A.F.C, in Cumbria.
But after ditching the profession altogether, Franny found himself falling into the dark underworld of drug dealing and EncroChat.
The ex-footballer “played a leading role” in operations, pumping out £500,000 worth of cocaine and ketamine onto the streets of Liverpool.
However, from 2016, the National Crime Agency (NCA) had been working with international law enforcement to target EncroChat, and in 2020, they managed to infiltrate the platform.
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A breakthrough in the operation came in January 2020 when the French developed a hack, whereby a software update – actually spyware – would be sent to all phones on the platform.
Once updated, the gangs unknowingly gave agencies unprecedented access to organised crime gangs’ secret communications.
And, Ventre’s connection to his former club turned out to be the key that cracked his whole case wide open.
NCA officers discovered he was using the platform, in 2020, under the name Dillforest, to share details of drug deals and deliveries.
He supplied a kilogram of cocaine worth nearly £40,000 and 63kg of ketamine, worth £441,000, according to the NCA.
They were able to gain access to all of this information with his password – ‘barrow’.
Not only did the 62-year-old discuss drugs, he revealed his birthday, home address, and information about his family in the chats.
Detectives were quickly able to piece together who their suspect was – former Barrow AFC defender Francis Ventre.
He was detained in November last year and appeared before Liverpool Crown Court.
Ventre admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and ketamine and conspiracy to convert criminal property, a money laundering offence.
A judge sentenced the ex-footballer to nine years in prison.
NCA Senior Manager Jon Hughes from the Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership said: “It was clear from Dillforest’s messages that he was playing a leading role in the sale of cocaine and ketamine, two drugs which are extremely harmful and a terrible blight on communities.
“My officers spent countless hours sifting through messages to painstakingly piece together clues to Dillforest’s real-world identity, eventually uncovering Francis Ventre as the man behind the alias.
“The investigators’ hard work has ensured that Ventre is in prison, and not out in Liverpool, still selling, delivering and profiting from drugs.”
Ventre joined the then non-league team Barrow in March 1995 and made a total of 27 appearances for the club.
He played as a defender but had a rocky start to his career which saw him start in only three games in the 1996 season.
Instead, Ventre managed the club as a caretaker before landing a management role until 1998.
He also played in other non-league teams such as Bootle, Vauxhall GM, Skelmersdale United, Burscough and Morecambe.
Barrow A.F.C. is now a professional EFL League Two club in Cumbria.
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